Also Wednesday night, up in Grand County, the National Weather Service extended a flood advisory, warning that the Fraser and Colorado rivers, as well as St. Louis Creek, were likely to flood from a heavy snowmelt.

What those three deluged counties and two towns share in common is their nonparticipation in the National Flood Insurance Program, a lapse that could at some point leave their residents exposed to huge out-of-pocket costs.

The program provides property owners with a more affordable option for flood insurance — if they want or need it — in return for safeguards placed on future developments in floodplains.

Ten of Colorado's 64 counties and 56 municipalities, however, don't participate in the voluntary program, which dates to 1968, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"We are constantly trying to leave that door open. We think it is an important program," said Matt Buddie, FEMA's Colorado floodplain manager.

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Homeowner's insurance policies don't cover flood damage, which is where the NFIP steps in. Premiums are significantly lower than those offered through private lines, assuming they are even available, and coverage is open to all comers in participating communities.

A property owner doesn't need to be in a floodplain to obtain NFIP coverage. But if they are in a flood zone, they must have some type of flood insurance to obtain a federally backed mortgage.

Another perk is that residents of participating communities are eligible for FEMA assistance to rebuild, as well as other federal aid such as low-cost Small Business Administration loans.

"We would urge every community to adopt the standards it takes to become an NFIP community," said Carole Walker, executive director at Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association.

Walker said a home is much more likely to suffer damage from water than fire over the course of a 30-year mortgage. Yet too few people are adequately covered, as September's floods demonstrated. Half of that flood damage came from outside designated floodplains.

Reasons differ on why communities decline to participate, said Jerry DeFelice, a spokesman with FEMA Region VIII in Denver.

"Some very small communities may not be experiencing growth or new development, and feel it's not worth the administrative effort to join," he said.

About half the municipalities not participating in Colorado have fewer than 500 residents. Others have never experienced a flood and have had no maps drawn up to measure flood risks. A few, looking to future growth, fear NFIP limits could hamper economic development.

But in some cases, nonparticipation comes from opposition to federal involvement in local land-use decisions and, in general, regulation.

"Enforcing some of the regulations that come with belonging to NFIP is difficult when you don't have building codes," said Christe Coleman, director of the Custer County Office of Emergency Management.

Custer County, west of Pueblo, has minimal building codes.

Real estate agents in the county have pushed for participation in the flood-insurance programs, as have some residents unable to obtain mortgages. But county commissioners last year rejected joining.

"The vocal majority don't feel like the benefit overall outweighs the cumbersome regulation and cost of mapping and implementing those regulations," Coleman said.

Many parts of rural Colorado also have a deeply entrenched sense of self-reliance.

"Historically, we have handled everything thrown at us," Coleman said. "We are not the same as Larimer County. We don't have lakes and reservoirs all over the place."

Grand County, by contrast, does have snow-laden mountains and lots of moving water spilling into lakes and reservoirs. Yet its commissioners also rejected participating and even resisted mapping out flood risks.

When surveyed in 2007, county residents didn't list flooding as one of the five disasters most likely to harm them, offering up instead wildfires, winter storms, hazmat spills, landslides and rock slides, and a disease outbreak, according to county commission meeting minutes.

But FEMA and state authorities considered Grand County such a high risk for flooding that they pushed forward and created a flood map.

Once that happens, a community has a year to decide whether it wants to join the program or join a FEMA sanction list.

Sanctioned communities, of which there are 17 in Colorado, are limited in the federal grants available for pre-planning natural-disaster response, which could include flood and wildfires. Residents who get flooded out, besides most likely not having any insurance coverage, also face more limited emergency assistance.

Grand County commissioners, following strong recommendations from the county's emergency management director and planning manager against joining, voted to reject NFIP participation in 2008.

Part of those deliberations involved a discussion of whether a dam break would open the door to federal assistance because it wasn't a "natural flood."

Several Grand County officials contacted for this story didn't respond. Flooding dangers there remain high there.

Participation in the NFIP is determined on the level where land-use planning occurs. Winter Park, Fraser, Grand Lake and Granby are part of the NFIP, while Hot Sulphur Springs and Kremmling, along with unincorporated areas of Grand County, aren't.

Summit County participates in the program, but three of its water-bordering communities do not — Dillon, Blue River and Montezuma.

NFIP policies do have coverage limits, and there are long-term concerns about the solvency of the program, given large claims paid out in hurricane-prone coastal areas.

Damage payouts are limited to $250,000 for structures and $100,000 for contents, if that coverage is obtained. Those payouts may not stretch too far in mountain-resort communities.

One common misconception is that basements, where flooding is most likely to occur, aren't covered. FEMA's Buddie said the program pays to clean out water and mud, restore any damaged and necessary systems, such as the furnace and hot water, and to return the basement to unfinished condition, including roughed-in drywall.

After last fall's flooding, FEMA and state officials made another concerted push to get communities to participate, and they found a more receptive audience.

"We plan to revisit the topic in the near future, particularly in light of the events of last September," said Dick Eason, town administrator in Elizabeth.

When the topic came up two or three years earlier, a majority of residents expressed strong opposition, he said.

The town of Bennett has started to bring its rules for development in flood-prone areas more in line with federal standards, administrator Trish Stiles said.

"It was our understanding that Bennett was covered through the county," Stiles said. "If that is not the case, we need to get this finished."

The paperwork to join the program isn't complicated — it involves submitting a one-page form — but joining requires a statement of community support, which may not come so easily.

FEMA, working with the Colorado Water Conservation Board, handles the cost of floodplain mapping, and participating communities must designate a floodplain manager to oversee implementation and enforcement of program requirements, which are focused primarily on new development.

Buddie said local leaders may think a flood may never hit home, but emergency officials know differently, one reason they keep persisting with the patience of Noah.

DeFelice recommends that concerned residents in areas not under the NFIP go to their local planning offices and ask for risk information specific to their location. They can also visit the federal website on the topic.

"Take steps to minimize flood risk," he advised, "even if you don't have flood insurance."